Lost
by Cottia
Summary: Based on an English assignment to imitate TS Eliot. Not quite fanfiction, but not quite original. Posted here for feedback, so concrit and even flames are welcome although concrit is oh so much more fun .


A/N: this was written as an English assignment to imitate TS Eliot's _The Wasteland_. We had required excerpts from different types of literature to include, based on what our course had covered over the year. All excerpts are italicized, and translated if need be, and listed at the bottom of the poem. As usual, I don't own anything.

_Love made me such that I live in fire  
like a new salamander on earth _  
Like a new-birthed egg  
a newborn babe  
And then  
_Go and catch a falling star,  
Get with child a mandrake root,_  
It stopped  
broke  
stalled

_Four and twenty ladies fair  
Were playing at the ba',  
And out then came fair Janet  
Ance the flower amang them a'  
_  
No longer can I hear the voices  
the soothing sirens' call  
no longer can I feel the stirring  
in the Grey King's hall  
_Turning and turning in the widening gyre  
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;_  
Confused  
bereft  
hurt  
left behind  
_Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.  
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'_

Can you  
turn it back  
return  
to what once was  
Can you  
_Tell me where all past years are,  
Or who cleft the devil's foot,  
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,  
Or to keep off envy's stinging_  
Can you  
help me

_Four and twenty ladies fair  
Were playing at the chess,  
And out then came fair Janet  
As green as onie glass._

Janet had her herb from Carterhaugh  
Bluebeard's wives his egg  
Where is my refuge  
my harbor  
my safe house  
_Which is the poison to poison her prithee?_

_The trail climbs in zig-zags  
High above spiralling whirlpools.  
Swift waters break against sheer rocks._  
And every turn  
escape  
trail  
is barricaded  
locked  
against flight:_  
Angele dei  
qui custos es mei,  
Me tibi commissum pietate superna;  
Hac nocte illumina, custodi, rege, et guberna.  
Amen_  
My prayer lifts up the skies  
Spirals towards heaven  
asking  
calling  
_When, high in the clouds, will you proclaim your name?_  
_  
No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio  
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:  
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,  
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma._  
and yet.  
You have hurt me  
wounded  
scarred  
my single solace:  
_pourtant vous serez semblable à cette ordure,  
A cette horrible infection,  
Étoile de mes yeux, soleil de ma nature,  
Vous, mon ange et ma passion!_  
_  
'Hauld your tongue, ye auld-faced knight,  
Some ill death may ye die!  
Father my bairn on whom I will,  
I'll father nanre on thee._

Medieval literature:  
_"Four and twenty ladies fair  
Were playing at the ba',  
And out then came fair Janet  
Ance the flower amang them a'_

Four and twenty ladies fair  
Were playing at the chess,  
And out then came fair Janet  
As green as onie glass.

'Hauld your tongue, ye auld-faced knight,  
Some ill death may ye die!  
Father my bairn on whom I will,  
I'll father nanre on thee."  
From "Tam-Lin," Anonymous, old English ballad

The "southern" Renaissance:  
_"Love made me such that I live in fire  
like a new salamander on earth"_  
From Rime 208, by Gaspara Stampa

Shakespeare:  
_ "Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.  
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'"_  
St. Crispin's Day Speech, from Henry V, Act IV, Scene III

European Enlightenment:  
_ "Go and catch a falling star,  
Get with child a mandrake root,  
Tell me where all past years are,  
Or who cleft the devil's foot,  
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,  
Or to keep off envy's stinging"_  
From "Song," by John Donne

Romantic literature:  
_"Turning and turning in the widening gyre  
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;"  
_ From "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats

Age of Realism:  
_"Et pourtant vous serez semblable à cette ordure,  
A cette horrible infection,  
Étoile de mes yeux, soleil de ma nature,  
Vous, mon ange et ma passion!"_  
From "Une Charogne," by Charles Baudelaire  
Translation:  
_"And yet you will be like this corruption,  
Like this horrible infection,  
Star of my eyes, sunlight of my being,  
You, my angel and my passion!"_

Chinese literature:  
_"The trail climbs in zig-zags  
High above spiralling whirlpools.  
Swift waters break against sheer rocks."_  
From "The Trail Up Wu Gorge," by Sun-Yun Feng

Japanese literature:  
_ "When, high in the clouds, will you proclaim your name?"_  
From "The Diary of the Waning Moon," by the Nun Abutsu

Vernacular diction or popular culture:  
References to fairytales, Welsh mythology: the Grey King, Bluebeard

Texts written in language other than English:  
_ "Angele dei  
qui custos es mei,  
Me tibi commissum pietate superna;  
Hac nocte illumina, custodi, rege, et guberna.  
Amen"_  
"Angele Dei," prayer to one's guardian angel, attributed to St. Anselm  
Translation:  
_ "Angel of god,  
my guardian dear,  
To whom his love commits me here;  
Ever this (day, night) be at my side,  
To light and guard, to rule and guide.  
Amen."_

_"No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio  
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:  
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,  
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma."_  
"Sonnet XVII," by Pablo Neruda  
Translation:  
_"I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,  
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.  
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,  
in secret, between the shadow and the soul."_

Other:  
_"Which is the poison to poison her prithee?"_  
From "The Laboratory" by Robert Browning


End file.
